Sea of Green (SOG)

Last Updated: August 13, 2018

Definition - What does Sea of Green (SOG) mean?

Sea of Green (SOG) is a gardening method that cannabis growers use to grow the maximum number of plants possible in the shortest amount of time. SOG is a common growing technique used to force an early bloom, and therefore an earlier harvest.

Using the Sea of Green method, horticulturalists can harvest their plants at a much younger age. In a SOG set-up, plants are grown shorter than normal and are placed close together (within one or two feet of each other) inside the growroom.

From the edge of the grow space, a person who looks over the area sees what looks like a 'sea of green'.

MaximumYield explains Sea of Green (SOG)

Growing via the SOG method doesn’t require any specialized training or equipment (just a lot of space and manual labor!) and is mostly a matter of pruning and manipulating lighting schedules.

With SOG, cannabis seeds are germinated or clones are taken normally, but grown under 18-24 hours of light per day. This reduces their rest time and forces the plants to grow faster.

The light time is then reduced to exactly 12 hours, which forces flowering. Then, the lower branches are trimmed off, which directs the plant's energy to the bloom stage. Soon after the plants are ready for harvest.

To get the best results using this method, it's important to start off with strains that are known for quicker flowering times and known to grow short and wide, i.e., sativa strains. If starting from clones, which is the recommended best practice, uniformity of the cuttings and their size is the key to getting the best results from SOG.

The SOG method is not suitable for the majority of the agricultural crops out there because over time it will stress a plant out, forcing it to abort its fruit. Some forms of the SOG technique are used in the commercial growing of annuals, however.

The main downfall in the Sea of Green method for cannabis growers is that this style of growing requires a lot of individual plants, no matter how small, which, in the eyes of the law, often ends up exceeding the allowable limits of plants for a home grow.